Bitcoin bloodbath sees $25bn wiped off value of all cryptocurrency

Devaluation accelerated by hard fork of bitcoin cash into two different cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin has fallen in value to below $5,000 for the first time since October 2017, bringing the total value of bitcoin available to just below $87bn. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is down 22pc to $4,883 in the past week, falling as much as 12pc yesterday (19 November).

The spiral has also caused other cryptocurrencies to dip, with Ethereum falling 13pc and XRP falling 5pc.

Overall, the value of bitcoin is down 30pc since Thanksgiving last year and down 76.5pc from its all-time high. Meanwhile, Ethereum is down 87pc from its all-time high, according to cryptocurrency news site CCN.

The turmoil in the cryptocurrency market has seen an estimated $25bn wiped off the value of virtual cash as digital assets plummet.

A forked-up situation

One of the reasons for the decline in bitcoin value is the split of bitcoin cash – an offshoot of bitcoin – into two different cryptocurrencies, which are now competing with each other and causing turmoil in the cryptocurrency space.

The situation is known in crypto circles as a hard fork. There are now two versions of bitcoin cash: bitcoin cash ABC and bitcoin cash SV.

There are fears that the acrimony could spread to other cryptocurrencies, causing a kind of virtual run on the market for virtual cash. This could lead to similar splits, dragging the overall value of cryptocurrencies downward.

For example, digital assets such as Monero (XMR), Tron (TRX), Dash, Iota and Binance Coin (BNB) have recorded an average daily drop of around 16pc.